Apple ordered to alter Samsung website notice

1 November, 2012 - Paul Dixon

UK judges have told Apple to alter a notice on its website regarding a lawsuit with Samsung. Apple was ordered to post the notice to acknowledge a UK courtroom’s ruling that Samsung hadn’t infringed upon the iPad with its Galaxy tablets, but according to BBC News Apple has now been told the notice isn’t compliant.

As we reported last week, rather than simply posting an acknowledgment, Apple also included unflattering comments from the judge’s ruling, which essentially said that Samsung’s products didn’t infringe on Apple’s designs because they weren’t as cool:

The informed user’s overall impression of each of the Samsung Galaxy Tablets is the following. From the front they belong to the family which includes the Apple design; but the Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back. They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool.

In addition to the judge’s comments, Apple also pointed out that a similar case in Germany ruled that Samsung had copied the iPad, and that a US jury found the South Korean company guilty of infringing on its design and utility patents. Unsurprisingly, Samsung has objected to the inclusion of those other cases in the notice:

This has received enormous publicity and has perpetuated confusion as to Samsung’s entitlement to market the Galaxy tablet computers in issue,” a Samsung lawyer said in a written statement to judges.

It has created the impression that the UK court is out of step with other courts.

As part of the original judgment, Apple also has to place acknowledgements in a number of British magazines and newspapers, including the Daily Mail, Financial Times, and T3 Magazine.

Apple requested 14 days to alter the website notice, but has been given 48 hours.

About the author

Paul Dixon is the owner of Macsessed. He lives in Lancashire in the UK where he works as a web designer. You can find him on Google+ and Twitter.